


Do You Hate Me?

by Chrystie, exuberant_imperfection, kate882, luckypen



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 08:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4428572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrystie/pseuds/Chrystie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/exuberant_imperfection/pseuds/exuberant_imperfection, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882, https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckypen/pseuds/luckypen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As soon as the door closed, Kuroko removed his arms from around Aomine and leaned back against the counter with a blank expression. “If that’s how you usually kiss people, it’s no wonder that the only girls in your life are Momoi-san and Mai-chan,” he said impassively. “My teeth kind of hurt from when you slammed your mouth into mine. Try not to freak out so much. They’re just our parents.” </p><p>“Then don’t spring bullshit plans on me last minute, dickhead!” He wished he could say something about Kuroko’s kissing but he couldn’t deny that Kuroko was great. “And don’t diss Mai-chan!” he added as an afterthought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do You Hate Me?

**Author's Note:**

> I marked it alternate universe, because they're still in high school, but basketball isn't really mentioned at all? And the characters have different relationships and histories. So yeah.
> 
> Also, side-note, this features a vaguely asexual!Kagami being the best/worst friend ever.
> 
> Side-note 2, sex is mentioned fairly frequently but not described to any explicit degree, hence the T rating.

“Aomine-kun, please do me a favor and kiss me when our parents walk in,” Kuroko said casually as Aomine looked through the fridge for something to eat. Every time Aomine’s parents and Kuroko’s parents decided they wanted to hang out, they thought that Kuroko and Aomine did as well and would leave both of them at one of their houses, even though the two didn’t particularly like each other all that much. Just because their parents were friends didn’t mean they had to be as well.

Aomine whipped his head over to look at Kuroko, hitting his head on the fridge door in the process. “Ow! Fuck!” He held his injury for a few seconds before going back to narrowing his eyes at Kuroko. “What the fuck, dude! I thought we mutually agreed we hated each other.”

“Hate is a strong word. I’d prefer to say that I’m apathetic towards you. It takes far less energy than hating someone, and frankly I don’t find you worth the energy,” Kuroko replied, sipping on his water. “However, I am rather tired of our parents trying to force us to like each other. Perhaps they would back off if they thought we were dating,” he explained.

Aomine stared at him dumbstruck. “See, this is why I don’t like you. You look all innocent and shit and then _bam!_ You spring this shit on me.”

Kuroko tilted his head at the reply, looking at Aomine curiously. “Is that your way of rejecting this plan then?” he asked.

He hated to admit it but it wasn’t a bad plan. It was actually a pretty smart idea. He sighed and nodded. “Fine, I’ll do it, if only to get our parents to back off.”

“As if there’s any other reason to do it,” Kuroko said, a touch of disdain showing on his face as he looked at Aomine.

They both heard the door open, making Aomine panic. He rushed over towards Kuroko and smashed their lips together before their parents were fully through the door.

Kuroko frowned a bit. The kiss couldn’t exactly be described as pleasant. Aomine panicking was not an Aomine that Kuroko enjoyed kissing. Either way, he rolled with it, since it was his idea, wrapping his arms around Aomine’s shoulders and standing on his tip toes before tilting his head to get a better angle and running his tongue along Aomine’s lower lip.

Aomine hadn’t expected Kuroko to be so forward with the kiss, but whatever. He parted his lips for Kuroko to slide his tongue into his mouth. Kuroko hummed in approval. It seemed Aomine could be a decent kisser when he wasn’t freaking out.

Kuroko’s parents were the first ones to spot them and giggled. They had wanted the two to get along and this was _certainly_ getting along. Aomine’s parents were more taken aback. Aomine’s dad groaned a bit realizing he’d probably need to modify the birds and bees talk.

Kuroko pretended to just notice their parents coming in when he heard Aomine’s father. He pulled back quickly, and feigned surprise at seeing them. “H-hello. You are home earlier than expected...”  

“Well, we finished early. We came to pick you up, however you two look like you’re enjoying yourselves. We won’t disturb you. Have fun boys.” Kuroko’s mom smiled before pushing everyone back out of the house.

“Uhh, yeah. Umm, we will?” Aomine wanted to hit himself. He didn’t think there was a stupider way to respond than how he just did.

As soon as the door closed, Kuroko removed his arms from around Aomine and leaned back against the counter with a blank expression. “If that’s how you usually kiss people, it’s no wonder that the only girls in your life are Momoi-san and Mai-chan,” he said impassively. “My teeth kind of hurt from when you slammed your mouth into mine. Try not to freak out so much. They’re just our parents.”

“Then don’t spring bullshit plans on me last minute, dickhead!” He wished he could say something about Kuroko’s kissing but he couldn’t deny that Kuroko was great. “And don’t diss Mai-chan!” he added as an afterthought.

“I wasn’t. I don’t know her. I was insulting you for sexualizing her in the place of finding a real girlfriend.”

“She’s a gravure model! Her job is to be sexy!”

“I suppose. It still doesn’t explain why you have such an odd obsession with her when there are people who you actually have a chance with in the world for you to pursue,” Kuroko replied.

“Have you _seen_ her tits?” Aomine said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“The ones that are photoshopped for magazines, you mean? Or her actual breasts? Because I’ve only seen one, and that was when you shoved a magazine in my face,” he said flatly, a look of disdain coming back to his features.

Aomine’s face held the most offended look he could muster, “You take that back.”

“Women are photoshopped for magazines all the time. It’s a commonly known fact. You can feel free to go look into it yourself if you would like.”

Aomine would not listen to this. It was blasphemy Kuroko was talking. Blasphemy! He walked away covering his ears, chanting “nope” like a mantra until he was sat on the living room couch. “I won’t listen to you and your lies!”

Kuroko tilted his head at Aomine. “Could you perhaps be so obsessed with the largeness of Mai-chan’s breasts because you are lacking in size elsewhere?”

Aomine stuttered over his words. “Fuck you! At least I’m more than two feet tall!”

Kuroko narrowed his eyes at Aomine. “And you continue to be obsessed with size. I really think you may be compensating for something.”

“Y’know what?! You really wanna know?! ‘Cause I’ll drop my pants right now if that’s what you want!”

“I don’t think anyone wants that.” Kuroko said, frowning at him.

“Yeah? Then shut up about my dick, asshole!”

Kuroko widened his eyes innocently and blinked a few times. “I don’t recall _ever_ mentioning your genitalia,” he said with false horror.

Aomine groaned. He had half a mind to just pick the guy up and throw him out of his house. “Your baby eyes aren’t gonna work y’know. You radiate too much asshole.”

Kuroko batted his eyelashes a few times and added a pout. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he insisted.

“Sure ya don’t. Just like how Kise doesn’t drool all over your ass.” Aomine rolled his eyes.

“He doesn’t,” Kuroko said, walking into the living room and flopping down into a chair.

Aomine resorted to just glaring at him. This guy was such a fucking piss off.

They both froze when they heard the door open again. Acting completely on impulse Aomine pulled Kuroko over to his couch, lied down, and pulled him on top of him.

“I forgot something earlie—” Aomine’s mom started but then noticed them on the couch. “Oh. Well, uh… I think it’s time that you went home Kuroko. We need to have a talk with Daiki. Your parents are at the end of the hall.”

Kuroko blushed and nodded, carefully moving off of Aomine. “Goodnight, Aomine-kun.” He smiled and pecked him on the cheek before walking out, saying a quick goodbye to Aomine’s parents.

Fuck. Aomine did not want to have the safe sex talk with his parents, which he knew was coming. He tried to push himself further into the couch hoping to disappear before they could walk over to him, which unfortunately didn’t work.

It was going to be a long night. He should’ve never agreed to this fake dating idea.

* * *

“Hey, so when we ‘break up’ how are we going to do that?” Kuroko asked. They’d been left to hang out with each other again, but this time their parents were in the house. They were up in Kuroko’s room watching TV for lack of anything better to do.

“I dunno,” Aomine said, words slightly muffled by the pillow he was face down on. “We could just fight really loudly. We’re good at that.”

“Yeah, but we have to make it bad. That way they won’t want to force us to be around each other ever again because they’ll be worried about us.” Kuroko turned the page in his book. He’d long since lost interest in what was playing on the television.

“It could be something like you’re terrible at sex or something.” Aomine chuckled a bit at the idea.

Kuroko rolled his eyes. “I think, judging by that first kiss, that you would be the one that would be the problem if we were sleeping together.”

He groaned. “Would ya let that go?! I panicked. You want a real kiss, then _here_.” Aomine sat up and cupped the back of Kuroko’s head, pressing their lips together. He nibbled Kuroko’s bottom lip slightly and gave it a small lick. Kuroko gasped, only partly from surprise, effectively parting his lips for Aomine. Aomine slid his tongue into Kuroko’s mouth and pushed Kuroko down to the bed.

Kuroko hated himself a little for letting a small moan slip out of his mouth. Of all the people to let his control slip around, it had to be Aomine. In his defense, he hadn’t been expecting this situation.

Aomine parted their lips, smirking down at Kuroko. “There’s a real kiss.”

Kuroko liked to pretend he wasn’t blushing as he glared up at Aomine. “I don’t think that was entirely necessary,” he said.

“Please. You were really into that just now. Don’t even deny it.” His smirk grew. It was nice being on the teasing side for once. This guy's pretty cute when he's pouting.

“I merely said it wasn’t necessary,” Kuroko replied, pushing at Aomine’s chest to indicate that Aomine should get off of him.

Aomine stayed where he was, on top of Kuroko. “I think examples are always necessary. Did you want another?”

“No. I want you to get off of me.” Kuroko could feel his face heating up even more, and he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. Which he knew was exactly why Aomine wasn’t moving. He just wanted to piss him off.

Aomine placed his elbow next to Kuroko’s head and leaned on his hand. “Y’sure? I don’t think you are.” Aomine wasn’t gonna move until Kuroko begged for it.

“I’m very sure. Get off,” he said, glaring at Aomine and pushing his chest again. “ _Move_.”

“Why don’t you ask nicely?” He let his face drop a little lower, until their noses were touching.

Kuroko smiled sweetly at him. “Daiki, won’t you please—” He jerked his knee up into Aomine’s crotch. “—get off of me?” He kept the sweet smile on his face the whole time along with the false cheer.

Aomine felt the sharp pain in his crotch and let all his weight fall on Kuroko. “Fuck!” he said hoarsely.

Kuroko felt the air get knocked out of him when Aomine fell on him, and maybe it wasn’t the best plan after all. It took some effort, but he was able to shove Aomine off of him now that Aomine wasn’t actively trying to stay on top of him.

Aomine held both hands to his crotch, hoping it would ease the pain. “I fucking hate you!” His words lost most of their bite with his pained wheezing.

“Then perhaps you should have gotten off of me when I asked.” Kuroko’s tone was as dismissive as his actions as he picked up his book again and resumed reading, seeming to have zero sympathy for Aomine’s predicament.

Aomine didn’t respond. There was no way he was telling Kuroko he was endearingly cute when he was embarrassed. He instead focused his attention to his injured crotch and let a out a small whimper.  

“You sound pained. You should get some ice for your injury,” he suggested without looking up from his book.

“Screw you, asshole.” He turned around onto his other side so he would no longer need look at Kuroko and his stupid straight face.

“No, thank you. Do remember that this relationship is a fake one. I also don’t think you would perform very well at the moment. You seem to have injured yourself.”

“Shut up! Maybe you should kiss the injury better, princess!” The pain was starting to somewhat subside but it still hurt like a bitch.

Kuroko shot him an irritated look. “You act like there’s something there for me to kiss.”

Aomine was royally pissed off now. "You're the fucking princess. Sucks you don't have either balls or boobs though."

“You can’t seem to get either one. That’s why you look to Mai-chan, correct? I’d bet that you’ve never even seen breasts that weren’t on a magazine or the internet, and Momoi-san’s don’t count.”

“Well you sure didn’t seem to hate it when my tongue was down your throat!” he growled out.

Kuroko could feel the blush returning to his face. “Shut up.” He lifted the book a bit higher so that Aomine couldn’t see his face if he bothered to turn back around.

Aomine felt the inklings of a grin split across his face. “What, no witty comeback, princess?” He released his crotch, the pain mostly gone by now and turned around to look up at Kuroko. He laughed a bit at Kuroko’s attempt to hide behind his book. “Nice blush by the way.”

“Shut up.” Kuroko resolutely didn’t look at Aomine.

Aomine laughed again and sat to give a slight peck on the cheek and poked him where he kissed. “You’re starting to look like a tomato, y’know.”

Kuroko glared at him and batted his hand away. “And there’s no reason for you to be kissing me right now.”

“You’re more entertaining than TV at the moment. I think that’s a pretty good reason.” Aomine smirked.

“I am not here for your entertainment.”

“Too bad that’s what you are.” Aomine let himself fall back so that he was lying down and looking up at Kuroko.

Kuroko ignored him. He couldn’t even concentrate on his book, but he pretended to anyway, hoping that Aomine would leave him alone.

Aomine poked him in the leg to try and get his attention, which didn’t work. He kept repeatedly poking Kuroko until he got to Kuroko’s stomach. Kuroko let out a small squeak and then glared at Aomine. He could already see the wicked grin forming on his face. “Don’t you dare,” Kuroko warned.  

Aomine smirked and sprung up. He sat on Kuroko’s legs and wiggled his fingers at Kuroko’s sides making him burst out in giggles.

“A-Aomine! Aomine-kun, g-get off of me!” Kuroko gasped between laughter as he tried to get out from under Aomine and hit Aomine’s hands away from him.

Aomine continued his onslaught, making sure Kuroko’s legs stayed under his. He wasn’t gonna deal with getting his balls crushed again. “Wouldya look at that, you have a cute side, princess.”

“St-stop it!” He was laughing so much that he could feel tears forming, so he squeezed his eyes shut to keep any from falling as he continued to laugh uncontrollably.

“Aww, but you look like you’re having so much fun,” Aomine teased.

Kuroko couldn’t even get words out anymore, so he just blindly attempted to hit Aomine for that.

Aomine paused for a bit to let Kuroko catch his breath and smiled down at him. “Now wasn’t that fun?”

“I think it might be worth the prison time to kill you right now,” Kuroko said after a moment to just breathe.

“Can’t kill when you’re the size of a little girl, princess.” Aomine patted his head for emphasis.

Kuroko narrowed his eyes at him, lashes still wet from the tears of laughter that Aomine had brought on. “I would _love_ to prove you wrong about that.”

“And how you gonna do that, princess?” Aomine smirked.

“With a rusty spoon and a lot of cleaning solution,” Kuroko said simply.

“Ooh, scary. The little princess has bite.”

Kuroko arched an eyebrow, before shrugging. Aomine arm was still hovering over his face since he’d reached out his hand to pat Kuroko’s head. So Kuroko simply leaned up and bit down on Aomine’s arm.

Aomine’s smirk died. “Ow! What the fuck?! You actually bit me!”

Kuroko leaned back and looked at the bite mark on Aomine’s arm. “Yes, it seems that I did, doesn’t it?” he replied calmly.

Aomine glared down at him and started tickling him again as an act of revenge.

“No! No! Stop!” Kuroko protested.

“Maybe when I feel like it.” Aomine continued to tickle him until he got tired of it.

* * *

"You know, if we're going to fake date for a while, you should at least learn how to make my coffee."

“Make your own coffee,” Kuroko replied.

"Hmm." Aomine pretended to think it over before refusing with a simple, "No thanks."

“Then you get no coffee,” Kuroko said with a shrug.

Aomine sighed but got up from the couch in the living room. "You know, you could at least try to be nice. What if one of my parents came in?" They'd arranged for a "date" at his house but done nothing so far.

Kuroko looked at him blankly for a moment before smiling and batting his eyelashes. “Aomine-kun, would you make some coffee for me? It would be the _nice_ thing to do.”

Aomine snorted. "Yeah, no." He ran a hand through his hair once, thinking. "Alright, fine. Neither of us is particularly happy right now anyway. Maybe we should hang out with a friend or something. If I stay here any longer I'll probably end up dumping my coffee on you."

“You don’t even have any coffee,” Kuroko informed him as he pulled out his phone. “I’ll text Kagami-kun.”

Aomine frowned now. "How the hell would that make this any better?? Don't let that idiot into my house! He'll probably break something."

“I was going to leave to go meet him, actually,” Kuroko said, tapping away on his phone.

“Then have fun with your idiot friend. You can let yourself out.” Aomine waved his arm in the direction of the door and went to crash on the couch.

Kuroko waited until he got a text from Kagami confirming that they could hang out before leaving and walking to Maji Burger.

Aomine rolled over on the couch, ignoring the small annoyance he felt in his stomach at the thought of Kuroko choosing Kagami over him.

* * *

Kagami threw a burger at Kuroko. “Are you _ever_ going to order anything besides a vanilla milkshake here???” He unwrapped one of his own burgers and shoved it into his mouth, eating it in two large bites. “You need to eat. You’re too damn skinny.”

“I am of average weight for my height,” Kuroko said, but unwrapped the burger because he knew Kagami would bug him about it if he didn’t eat.

Kagami rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He shoveled more food into his mouth.

“Aomine-kun and I are dating, by the way,” Kuroko said offhandedly, taking a sip of his shake.

Kagami choked. Several minutes later, after a lot of violent coughing and pounding the table, he exclaimed. “WHAT?”

“Aomine-kun and I are pretending to date. To get our parents to leave us alone,” Kuroko clarified, acting as if he hadn’t just nearly killed Kagami.

Kagami glared. “One day, I’m going to fucking die of a heart attack, and someone’s going to have to tell my parents that the reason I died is because my asshole best friend can’t resist fucking with people.”

“I will accept the duty of telling them,” Kuroko said solemnly. “But I think I will leave out the cursing. It’s not very consoling.”

“I’m sure they’ll be grateful. _Anyway_ ,” Kagami said, narrowing his eyes at Kuroko. “What the hell made you decide that pretending to date each other would make your parents leave you alone???”

“When we break up. If we’re together long enough it’s logical to think that we’d be hurt by the break up. They won’t want to put us through that emotional pain, so they won’t keep forcing us to hang out with each other. We just make out in front of them a few times and arrange ‘dates’, and they think we’re together,” he said with a shrug.

Kagami stared for a moment. Then _laughed_. “Wait, wait. So, in order to guilt your parents into not forcing you two to hang out, you’re going to have a fake fight with each other? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“...So, you couldn’t just have a fake _platonic_ fight because…….???” Kagami raised his eyebrows.

“It’s easier to mend friendships when you were just friends. They might try to get us to make up if we just fought as friends. Things are awkward after you’ve had sex. Which, I think they think we have done,” Kuroko told him.

Kagami snorted. “...Uh-huh. Good excuse you have there. You keep telling yourself that. Meanwhile,” he said, pulling out his phone and starting to type out a text, “I’m gonna make myself some good money betting with Momoi about when you two will _actually_ have sex.”

Kuroko frowned. “That’s disgusting, Kagami-kun, please do not joke about such things.”

“Oh, I’m not joking. I’m predicting the future,” Kagami said, which brought a realization upon him. “I wonder if Midorima would be in on this bet too…” He started typing another text.

“Midorima-kun is more of a prude than you are. Even if we were to have sex, you would be horrified as soon as you heard about it.”

Kagami set down his phone and unwrapped another burger. “I mean, you’re not wrong. But, money.” He took a bite, and then picked up his phone again as it vibrated with an incoming message. “Eh, Midorima, Takao, same difference,” he muttered, showing his phone to Kuroko.

_Shin-chan says “you’re on”, and bets 50 bucks they’ll fuck each other by the end of next week!!! ~Takao_

“It’s not good to show people your predictions. Aomine-kun and I could just decide we want one of you to lose money and tell you that we had sex in a certain time frame,” Kuroko told him after briefly looking over the message.  

Kagami shrugged. “Well, if you decide to purposely not do it the way Midorima predicts, that just makes it more likely I’ll win.” He picked up a few fries and used them to point at Kuroko with a smirk before he continued. “Also, you are now actively considering having sex with Aomine. Gotcha.”

“No. I am now actively considering telling you that I had sex with him,” Kuroko corrected.

“Whatever you say.” Kagami then settled in to make a dent in his large pile of burgers.

“We did make out when our parents weren’t there though. Aomine-kun was surprisingly good. It’s actually rather irritating,” Kuroko told him.

Kagami choked. Again. “STOP TRYING TO KILL ME, DAMMIT.”

Kuroko looked at him innocently. “I would _never_ try to kill my best friend,” he said, placing a hand over his heart.

“Liar,” Kagami accused. He went back to his burgers, keeping a suspicious eye on Kuroko.

“I also may have kneed his crotch. I thought you’d be proud of me for that one,” Kuroko said, finally starting to pick at the burger Kagami had given him.

Kagami finished swallowing his current bite of food and then grinned. “Hell yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about.” He held out a fist.

Kuroko reached out and bumped his own fist against Kagami’s. “I knew that would cheer you up.”

* * *

Aomine yawned as he walked into Kuroko’s room and dropped himself onto the bed. He groped around on the bed until he found something he could hug and pulled it to his chest, cuddling it.

Kuroko made a small sound of surprise when Aomine grabbed him, and for a moment just laid there frozen in shock. “Aomine-kun... what are you doing?” he asked hesitantly.

At the sound of Kuroko’s voice so close to him, Aomine finally deemed it a good enough reason to open his eyes and look at what he had decided to cuddle with. He looked down to see Kuroko in his arms but was too tired to actually release him so he shrugged and closed his eyes again. “Imma take a nap.”

“Do so without me please,” Kuroko said, attempting to sit up.

“But you’re already here,” he mumbled, “It’s not that bad right?” Aomine tightened his hold and nuzzled his face into Kuroko’s hair.

It wasn’t, and that freaked Kuroko out even more. “I’m not even tired,” Kuroko protested.

“Then just lay there for a bit? I’m sleepy.” Aomine yawned. “And you’re kinda comfy.”

“And this is kind of weird. Hug a pillow.” His arguments were just getting weaker.

“I tried to find one earlier. You just happened to be the one I got.”

“That’s not a proper argument,” Kuroko insisted.

Aomine groaned a bit. He pressed a kiss to the top of Kuroko’s head and shushed him. “Sleep.”

Kuroko blushed, and for reasons unknown to him let it go. It took a while for the tension to finally leave his body, and even longer for him to eventually fall asleep, but at some point his parents walked in to tell Aomine that his parents were there to pick him up only to find the two sleeping in each other’s arms.

* * *

Aomine groaned and laid back on his bed, covering his face with his hands. “This was an awful idea. My mom won’t stop slipping me condoms every other day, and my dad keeps making stupid fuckin’ _jokes_ , and just. UGH. _Why_ are we doing this???”

“Because when we break up they’ll never make us see each other again,” Kuroko reminded him, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“...Right.” Aomine wasn’t quite sure why that thought didn’t bring him as much relief as it did when they first started this whole charade. He laughed the uncomfortable feeling away. “Sure you won’t miss me too much?” he said with a shit-eating grin.

“I’m sure,” Kuroko deadpanned.

Aomine sat up and leaned into Kuroko’s personal space. “You _sure_ about that?”

Kuroko frowned and leaned back slightly. “I’m sure that you’re too close to me.”

“And _I’m_ sure you’re not close _enough_ ,” Aomine replied, hooking an arm around Kuroko’s waist and pulling him closer. “But then, we’ve never been very good at agreeing on things, hmm?” As he spoke, he leaned in to press several soft kisses to Kuroko’s neck, humming against his skin.

Kuroko could feel a blush coming to his face. “What are you doing?” he asked, tilting his head to give Aomine better access without even thinking about it.

“Well,” Aomine spoke between kisses, “even though,” _kiss_ “you’re a huge asshole,” _kiss_ “you’re very kissable,” _kiss_ “and I think you know that.” He bit lightly and sucked at the skin.

Kuroko let out a small gasp, wrapping his arms around Aomine and tangling his fingers in Aomine’s hair. “You can’t stand me. You’ve told me. Several times,” Kuroko pointed out.

Aomine pulled back briefly to look at him. “True. And vice-versa. But…” Aomine couldn’t quite think of a good way to end that sentence verbally. So instead he captured Kuroko’s lips with his own and kissed him deeply.

It was probably a mistake. Kuroko was very aware of that. But he still kissed back, moving so that he was perched in Aomine’s lap instead of the edge of the bed.

Aomine hummed in satisfaction and shifted his hands to Kuroko’s hips, pulling him as close as he could, until they were completely pressed against each other, still kissing. His thumbs brushed lightly against the exposed strip of skin between the top of Kuroko’s jeans and the bottom of his shirt.

Kuroko tugged at Aomine’s hair and rolled his hips forward against Aomine’s as he started sucking on the other’s bottom lip, catching it between his teeth for a moment before licking it.

Aomine moaned at the hint of friction. He needed _more_. He wrapped his arms around Kuroko, flipped them around, and pushed him down onto the bed, straddling his lap and returning the favor with a roll of his own hips. One hand wandered up underneath Kuroko’s shirt.

“Daiki!” Kuroko’s voice came out a little breathless and he started grinding their hips together. “ _Fuck,_ ” he muttered, biting his lip.

Aomine very much liked the sound of Kuroko saying his name like that, so instead of returning his lips to Kuroko’s mouth, he went back to sucking at his neck. He moved a hand down to the waistband of Kuroko’s jeans, grabbing it and tugging it downwards.

Kuroko’s eyes widened and he grabbed Aomine’s hand. “Wait! Stop!” Was he about to have sex with _Aomine?_ Who he didn’t even like that much? Who he was fake dating to get away from? Kagami’s smug grin popped into his head, and any lingering urge to continue vacated at that image. “I—I don’t think I want to do that.” He needed to think about this. Figure out what the hell it was he was feeling for Aomine, because if he’d been told two weeks ago that he’d be on the verge of having sex with Aomine he wouldn’t have believed it. He wouldn’t have believed it two _hours_ ago even.

A bit dazed and confused from the sudden interruption, Aomine just pushed himself back, still sitting on Kuroko’s lap. “O...kay?” he said slowly, just looking at him.

“Um, maybe I should go?” Kuroko said uncertainly. He wasn’t really sure what to do from here.

“Uh…” Aomine’s head was beginning to clear, but it didn’t make him any more sure about what exactly it was he was feeling, or what was the right thing to do. “I guess… if you want?”

Kuroko nodded. “I think I’m supposed to be going to go to Kagami-kun’s house for dinner, so I probably should.”

Aomine frowned. “Oh. I see.” He backed off of Kuroko’s lap, sitting at the end of the bed instead. “Well. Hope you have _tons_ of fun,” he said with a scowl, looking away.

Kuroko sat up, running a hand through his hair to try and straighten it. “You look dumb when you make that face,” Kuroko informed him, poking Aomine’s cheek.

Aomine batted his hand away. “Don’t—don’t fuckin’ touch me,” he muttered, still not looking at him.

Kuroko let his hand drop. “Are you jealous of Kagami-kun?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

“Why would I be jealous? I don’t care about you, or your stupid friend. And you don’t care about me. I thought we established this.”

“But—” Kuroko cut himself off. He glanced away from Aomine and wondered why it hurt to hear Aomine say that he didn’t care about him when he already knew that was true anyway. “Alright.” He got to his feet and looked in the mirror to fix his hair and straighten his clothes before walking out.

Aomine didn’t really know why he wanted so badly to say something else before Kuroko left, but he somehow managed to hold his tongue until he was gone. And then he tried not to think about how much he wanted Kuroko to come back. He sighed. “...Shit.”

* * *

“I almost had sex with Aomine-kun,” Kuroko commented as he watched Kagami cook. “What do you think that means?”

Kagami dropped the entire salt shaker into the pot, yelping as the boiling water splashed up onto his hand. A few minutes and lots of pained cursing later, dinner was put on hold, and Kagami was sitting at the table with Kuroko, a cold, wet cloth wrapped around his hand. He glared. “...’Almost’?”

Kuroko nodded. “Almost. I backed out right before he took my pants off.”

Kagami flinched. “Alright, easy on the details, yeah? I don’t need to know.” He paused in thought. “...By the way, _I told you so._ ”

“You did not! You told me we _would_ have sex! But we didn’t! ...And now I’m confused! And why did it hurt when he said he didn’t care about me even though I already knew that and I’m not supposed to care about him either?” The last sentence was a lot quieter than the first four.

“Uh.” The conversation had just taken a turn to an area that was firmly out of Kagami’s comfort zone—feelings. He was especially alarmed to see Kuroko so openly emotional. “That… probably means… you like him?”

Kuroko looked genuinely confused by that idea. “Why would I do something stupid like that? He just told me he doesn’t care about me.”

“There’s… not always a ‘why’, I think,” Kagami said… mostly because he couldn’t think of a reason himself, but he was pretty sure it was true. “Feelings don’t always make sense.” Now _that_ he knew for a fact.

Kuroko frowned. “They _should._ I couldn’t stand him two weeks ago, and today I was making out with him without it being for our fake relationship plan. I don’t understand.”

Kagami shrugged. “Things… change?” He was sure he wasn’t sounding too convincing when every one of his sentences was coming out as a question. “People change? I don’t know, sometimes you just… never know how something’s gonna work out…?” He rubbed the back of his neck in sheepish uncertainty. “Don’t you think you should be talking to _him_ about this?”

Kuroko shook his head. “Why would I talk to him about it? _He just said he doesn’t care about me._ Why would I tell him that I might care about him? He called me an asshole while he was kissing me, and excused it with me being kissable. I’m pretty sure he just wanted sex, not me in particular.”

Kagami grimaced. “ _Stop it with the details already,_ ” he hissed. Then he sighed. “I don’t know, Kuroko. I can’t read your mind, I can’t read Aomine’s mind—sure as hell wouldn’t _want_ to—so really, if you want answers, there’s only one place you can get them. And that’s from Aomine.” He paused. “I mean, if the idea of talking about your feelings scares you—which, I don’t blame you, because, _same_ —you could just. I don’t know, ask him about _his_ instead?”

Kuroko sighed. This wasn’t working. Whoever said talking about feelings with your friends was helpful or even a good thing at all lied to him. “Never mind, Kagami-kun. I’m sure I’ll get over whatever this is. I was thinking of having our break up in about two weeks, but maybe we can make it sooner. Out of sight, out of mind and all.”

“No!” Kagami said, maybe a little more loudly than intended in alarm. He scrambled to get his thoughts together--he had to have _something_ helpful bouncing around in his brain. “No, you… if you just ignore this, you’re never gonna know. You’ll never know for sure. You… You’re assuming Aomine said exactly what he means and is honest all the time about his feelings. Do you _really_ think that’s true?”

“No, but I don’t want to find out that he was honest about _these_ ones, and seem like an idiot for telling him that I may like him, when he’s just told me he doesn’t like _me_ ,” Kuroko replied. “Can we stop talking about it now?” he asked, not looking at Kagami.

Kagami looked at him seriously. “Depends. Are you gonna be happy if this whole thing goes according to plan? Will you _really_ be okay with ignoring your feelings and then never talking to him again? Honestly?”

“Yes,” Kuroko lied, but he didn’t even sound convincing to himself.

Kagami sniffed the air. “You smell that?” He paused and pointed at Kuroko. “That’s the smell of a whole load of _bullshit_ coming out of your mouth.”

Kuroko frowned. “Kagami-kun, you’re being ridiculous. Can we change the subject now? Is your hand okay?”

“Dammit, Kuroko, my hand is _fine!_ ” Kagami shouted. “ _You_ , on the other hand, are _not_. And I am _not_ dropping this until we fix it!” He made an effort to lower his voice to a normal volume before he continued. “...Because you are my best friend, and I want you to be happy.”

While that was all very sweet, Kuroko was no longer feeling the sharing mood. Although, he knew one thing he could share that would hopefully get Kagami to leave him alone about this. “So, Aomine-kun gave me this hickey.” Kuroko tugged at the collar of his shirt. “How long do you think it’s going to take for that to go away?”

Kagami’s face turned red. “I—I don’t know! How am I supposed to know? More importantly _why are you showing me this???_ ” he spluttered.

“I wanted your opinion. Do you think it will last longer since he didn’t just suck on it but he also bit—”

Kagami leaped up from his seat covering his ears. “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU, PLEASE SHUT UP, OH MY GOD!” he yelled, going back to the stove and continuing to prepare dinner. “You are gonna be the death of me, I swear,” he muttered as he chopped vegetables violently.

* * *

Aomine sat on Kuroko’s desk chair, swivelling around absentmindedly and tapping a pencil against the wooden surface. Every so often he glanced over at Kuroko, but it never gave him any more inspiration as to what to say to him.

Kuroko was watching TV, or, well, he was pretending to watch TV. He honestly couldn’t say for sure what was happening on the screen. He just kept on thinking about Aomine and the awkward silence they had been rocking for a while now.

The silence dragged on until they heard the sound of people coming upstairs. Aomine looked over at Kuroko, then walked over and slowly sat down next to him on the bed. “...In case they come check on us. Y’know?” he muttered as he settled down.

Kuroko nodded and leaned into Aomine’s side, keeping his eyes on the screen. “Okay.”

Both Kuroko and Aomine’s parents popped in to check on them, it turned out. They left after a minute of pointless small talk, and silence fell again. Aomine let the fake smile slip from his face and sighed, letting his head hit the wall behind them.

Kuroko straightened up a bit so that he was no longer leaning on Aomine, simply sitting next to him. He didn’t like this. At least before when they argued it wasn’t awkward. Now everything was tense and he had no idea what to say.

“So… you and Kagami have fun last night?” Aomine asked, trying maybe a little too hard to sound casual.

“Not really,” Kuroko said, thinking about how he’d literally had to flaunt a hickey to get out of talking about feelings. It wasn’t his idea of fun.

Aomine scoffed. “What, was he not as good in bed as you were hoping?”

“I told you I was having dinner with him. Why did that translate to sex to you? For one, I don’t think Kagami-kun is interested in sex anyway. And another thing, why would you think that I would want to have sex with Kagami-kun?” Kuroko asked, finally looking at Aomine.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because his name was practically the first thing out of your mouth after you decided you didn’t want me?” The words came out a little more bitter than he’d planned.

“But . . . It’s Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said with a frown as if that explained everything. “Besides, weren’t you the one who said you weren’t jealous because you didn’t care?”

“I’m not!!! I’m _not_ jealous!” Aomine insisted. “I just… I’m… you know… just. Making sure you don’t blow our cover. It’d be… it’d definitely be suspicious if you spent more time with Kagami than with your boyfriend, right?” He didn’t look at Kuroko.

“...Except that I still have hung out with you more in the past two weeks. Try again.”

Aomine gritted his teeth and looked up at the ceiling. He blurted out the first random excuse that came to mind, in a flat tone. “I. I suspected Kagami of being a serial killer secretly. I just wanted to save your life.”

Kuroko didn’t even dignify that with a reply. He turned back to watching television.

Aomine continued watching the ceiling, his arms crossed over his chest. Every second that ticked by piled more weight onto his chest. He was kind of hoping that maybe this whole issue would work itself out without him having to really do anything, but… it really wasn’t turning out that way. He heaved a sigh, and forced words past his reluctant throat. “Do you hate me?”

Kuroko was a little startled by that question, but decided to answer it honestly. “No.” He thought about what Kagami said, about how maybe Aomine hadn’t been telling the truth about his feelings before. It couldn’t hurt to ask. Aomine had brought it up. “Do you hate me?”

“No.” The answer was out of Aomine’s mouth before he could even question it. He swallowed nervously. “...Haven’t for a while, I think,” he added.

“I think that’s true for me as well.” Kuroko said, looking down at his hands.

It started with a little smirk that pulled at the corner of Aomine’s mouth. Then a giggle forced its way out of his mouth, and once that had happened he couldn’t stop the full-on fit of laughter that came on. It took a minute, but he eventually managed to stop it with two hands covering his mouth. “...Well,” he said when he finally trusted his voice. “Isn’t this romantic?”

Kuroko was still looking at Aomine with a mix of concern and confusion as he slowly replied, “I don’t know. Is it?”

“Oh come on, you have to admit it’s kind of funny. Just imagine… imagine some dumb romance movie, right? Like super cliche, super lovey-dovey and whatever. And then, at the end, instead of saying, ‘I love you’, they’re like, ‘I don’t hate you’ and ‘I don’t hate you, too’.” Aomine had to restrain himself from bursting out into laughter again. “What the hell is wrong with us?”

Kuroko was still looking mildly concerned, but the confusion had dimmed. “A lot, I would guess,” Kuroko answered. “I’d wager that there’s a bit more wrong with you though.”

“Oi,” he said in an offended tone, elbowing Kuroko slightly. But his voice grew serious again as he asked, “...Is that why you stopped and left yesterday?”

“What, because I think that there are things wrong with you?” Kuroko asked, tilting his head slightly.

“More things, is what you just said,” Aomine clarified. “More things wrong with me. As in… as in… I don’t know. Like I’m not. Not good enough or something.”

“I meant that as a joke,” Kuroko told him, running a hand through his hair and leaning back against the headboard of the bed. “No, I stopped because I needed to think. Not long ago I thought I couldn’t stand you and that you couldn’t stand me, and then all of a sudden we were potentially about to have sex and there were a lot of conflicting emotions about that because I wasn’t sure how I felt or how you felt about it, and so I needed to stop and think. And then I left because, well, it’s kind of awkward to sit around and chat with someone who you just rejected sex from,” he explained.

“...Well. That, uh… that makes sense,” Aomine said sheepishly. “Aaaaand I’m an idiot.”

“I hope you’re not expecting an argument on that.”

Aomine sighed melodramatically. “I was kind of hoping so, but I _suppose_ I can forgive you,” he joked.

Kuroko offered a small smile before things got quiet and Kuroko decided to ask Aomine where this was going. “So . . . what does this mean for us?”

Aomine scratched his cheek. “Um… well. I don’t wanna be fake boyfriends anymore. But. I don’t wanna fake break up with you either.” He hesitated for a moment. “I guess… I don’t wanna be fake anything with you anymore.”

Kuroko was blushing a bit and looked up at Aomine through his lashes. “So, you want to actually date?” he asked with a tiny smile.

Aomine looked over to meet Kuroko’s gaze… and immediately regretted it. The cute overwhelmed him. Heat rushed to his face and his mouth refused to properly form words. “Uhh.... mmmmye… yeee…. I… mm. Uh.” And then he just thought, _fuck it,_ and leaned down and kissed that very kissable face.

Kuroko let out a light laugh when he broke the kiss. “I’ll take that as a yes?”

Aomine grinned. “Glad you can read my mind, Tetsu.”

“Tetsu?” Kuroko asked. It was certainly better than “princess”, but it still caught him off guard.

“Mmhm,” Aomine answered absentmindedly as he grabbed one of Kuroko’s hands, laced their fingers together, and then brought them up towards his face to kiss each of Kuroko’s knuckles.

If the blush from before had been fading away it was back full force now as Kuroko looked down at their hands. “Alright then, Daiki.” He smiled at Aomine.

Aomine froze and then looked at him with an even bigger smile, which he didn’t know was possible. “Jeez, Tetsu, you’re reaching illegal levels of cute here. Give a guy a break!”

Kuroko was fully aware of what he was doing as he pouted up at Aomine. “But Daiki, where’s the fun in that?” he asked, leaning a bit closer.

Aomine didn’t really need any further invitation than that to kiss him again, threading his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.

Kuroko smiled against Aomine’s mouth before he started kissing back.

When they finally broke the kiss for air some time later, there was a single beat of silence, and then Aomine spoke. “So… wanna have not-fake sex now?”


End file.
